File Extensions And Monopolies 881
A_Non_Moose sent us an article from Salon that talks about how file extensions are one of the tools used by Microsoft to extend their mind and market share. It's a very simple idea but its honestly something I'd never thought about. Definitely worth a read, and a few neurons to realize how its really the simplest of things that will guarantee that this monopoly isn't stopped even if Microsoft's deep pockets didn't let them buy the law.
Windows 3.1 (Score:2, Informative)
Then with Windows 95, you started to have to struggle.
Re:Windows 3.1 (Score:4, Informative)
Mac solution is nice but... (Score:3, Informative)
Over time, I got irritated with soundjam and went back. I got rid of the program but the association is still there. I know how to fix it, but if someone was a little less knowledgeable or someone writes a program to change all my associations, I'd be quite.. irritated.
I know, its possible for any dos/win program to change my PC file extensions too, but its more obvious and probably a lot less likely.
Monopoly for the illiterate... (Score:5, Informative)
I agree that Microsoft does things specifically to retain a monopoly, but does everything it do have that purpose?
I doubt it.
Come on (Score:3, Informative)
RealPlayer, Winamp, Quicktime etc...
What's the difference when it's MS programs?
You can easily change the assocation by holding shift while right clicking on the file and choosing 'Open with'. You then check 'Always open with...' and there you go!
Changing the icon is way harder and is a way more annoying thing in windows.
Re:Give me a break. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Mac solution is nice but... (Score:2, Informative)
It's the kee-jerk solution to 90% of all pre-MacOS X problems:
reeeeeebbbbuild the deeeeeesktop.
Why the desktop on OS 7/8/9 didn't just rebuild itself once a month I'll never know. Oh well, it's a non-issue now.
~jeff
Re:Salon is now a pay site... (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/10/08/file _monopoly/print.html [salon.com]
should do the trick
Re:Errr... (Score:4, Informative)
My mom is a competent user. But never in a lifetime would she know how to reassociate a file type. She has a crutch in that she can call me and I can either talk her through her problems or go visit her.
I'm continually stunned by the "expected level" of expertise the industry assumes (or fails to live up to). Case in point: the millions of new DSL users with cheap PC's and 24/7 access. My best friend has had me over twice now to fix his machine from malicious ad/spyware stuffed in his registry.
Just how are people supposed to know this stuff? Where are they supposed to learn it?
I'm no friend of the Empire, but they do have a track record of obfuscation. Even if the answer (in 95/98) is a simple right-click, that's a skill that I bet a high percentage of users don't have or understand: "Right-click on this icon, please" [left-click] "OK, I clicked right on top of it. Now what?"
Microsoft has slowly been coming around to the idea of security throughout key configs. Why not take the "A script is accessing..." IE pop-ups and extend them to anything that touches non-app keys in the reg? And, as previously suggested, an audit app that can clearly show you what's associated where, what runs on startup for whom, and validates key DLL versions?
GTRacer
- When Konqueror is as good as IE 5.5...
Re:Question about "Open With" (Score:3, Informative)
A better solution would be to associate *multiple* applications to a given extension, and then have it list that set upon Open With (with the option of adding to the set from the entire pool of applications.)
I don't know about WinME (but I assume it's true there as well), this is a feature of Win2K. First, there's an "Open With" option on the context menu *without having to click shift*. Second, the option is actually a secondary menu that lists *all* of the programs that were *ever* used to open files of that type with the "Open With" option.
I use this feature frequently. I have my MP3 playlist loaded in Winamp, and if I want to check out a song I just downloaded, I right click->Open With->Media Player, so my playlist remains intact. Or I can choose whether I want to open JPEGs in PaintShop, ACDSee, IE, or whatever.
This takes exactly the same number of mouse clicks and marginally more time than double-clicking.
RTFM (Score:2, Informative)
Seems simple to me... What does this guy want, dialog boxes everytime you open a file?
"You are opening this file with Windows Media Player, do you want to use another program instead?" ['click' NO]
"Are You sure? You may actually like Real Player better, or maybe WinAMP." ['click' YES]
"OK, Your default player has not been changed, but we will check back with you to see if you've changed your mind next time you open a file."
Besides, if a user likes Real Player (example he used), when he opens the program it will notify him that it is not set up to be associated with certain file types, and ask to correct this. This is in no way anything that contributes to MS maintaining a monopoly. This guy is probably just hacked off because it took him 1/2 an hour to figure out because he couldn't use help. Musta been a slow day over at Salon...
Not exactly.... (Score:2, Informative)
The "Open with" option only appears on file types that don't already have a default handler program selected. If they have one, you just get the "Open" option instead. If you want to change it, you have to know how to change your file associations in Explorer. Most people have no idea how to do this.
Konqueror got it right (Score:2, Informative)
Still, extensions are a fundamentally broken and archaic way of handling associations. Bring resource forks to Linux!
Nitpick point. (Score:5, Informative)
An analogy:
/*Unix*/
char fname[PATH_MAX]; strcpy( fname, "foo.c" );
char fname[9]; strcpy( fname, "foo" );
char exten[4]; strcpy( exten, ".c" );
Re:Mac solution is nice but... (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, OS X uses a combination of the old Type/Creator codes and the file extensions. However, any individual document can have a specific application associated with it.
Click on the file's icon, type Command-I. (For "Info".) It's the second option down on the popup window.
VC++ dialog boxes... (Score:1, Informative)
ignorance is bliss (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Nitpick point. (Score:1, Informative)
in FAT, it's:
char fname[8]; strcpy( fname, "foo" );
char exten[3]; strcpy( exten, "c" );
Putting . (period) in the file's name/extension
is an error. the FAT driver will punch the '.' in.
This artical is incorrect (Score:2, Informative)
"It's not in the "add/remove programs" control panel, where you'd expect it. It's not under "properties" when you right-click on a file. It's not in any obvious or easily accessible location."
It IS under the right click on a file in Win2k if you right click on any file and go to properties you will see a "Change" button where you can easily change the file type. I do admit however that it was very difficult to do in Win9x
How I fixed it (Score:3, Informative)
Now everything opens in Emacs, or if it doesn't, I have an "Open in Emacs" option on the right-click context menu in Explorer
Re:And he thinks Macs are better at this????? (Score:5, Informative)
The Mac's file system stores 2 equivalents to the file extension for each file, the type and creator codes. The type code indicates what type of file it is, the creator code indicates the application that created it. The key concept here is that on a Mac, those 2 bits of metadata are orthogonal, and with a simple file extension they cannot be without some serious filesystem hacking, which MS hasn't bothered to do.
Also worth noting that Mac OS X has most of the features this guy requests; you can remap a file's ownership from the Get Info window, and make your change global from the same location.
The point (Score:2, Informative)
The article says this about filetype associations...
This quote describes almost every operation of every kind in Windows. The only reason anyone calls it user-friendly is because of their perception of the crushing effects of group psychology steered by a monopoly. It's like living in a technological ghetto -- some people whose course is altered under this influence are weak minded, but many of them have no reasonable alternative without radically and permanently altering their lifestyles with no help or prior evidence for success. Like nationalistic propaganda, it's heavily reinforced at just about every level of society. Having a monopoly that pervasively influences every aspect of society is like having narcotics in the water supply.
Re:And he thinks Macs are better at this????? (Score:1, Informative)
Why couldn't Apple have just done the responsible thing for power users long ago and integrated T&C choosing into Finder? I guess with widespread use of OSX on the horizon it's a moot point...
Re:And he thinks Macs are better at this????? (Score:3, Informative)
--script to convert files to Maple 5 Notebook
on open(theList)
tell application "Finder"
repeat with theItem in theList
set creator type of theItem to "REL5"
set file type of theItem to "MVNB"
end repeat
end tell
end open
Not exactly simple, but it can be done with a Apple provided program. (And it is faster than ResEdit).
I am sure that in the coming years, Microsoft is likely to provide a online, for-fee, version of Office. It could be problematic if instead of launching StarOffice, double clicking on a spreadsheet file would preferentially launch the network Excel application...
Apple has, to my knowledge, no such plans...
Re:*cough*bullshit*cough* (Score:2, Informative)
Really now, have you ever tried to talk your mother through getting pictures off of a CD? Mother - "What do you mean what drives show up? All I see are little folder things on the left, and little gray things with them".
I must admit however, that the solution proposed by Mr. Rosenberg is a bit misguided. The whole thing with XP was that it was better to take all the icons off the desktop. Putting a big ol' dialog up there saying "Which program do you want to view with?" is hardly the best in terms of GUI design, but he does have an interesting point. Currently I have RealJukebox and Winamp installed on my Win2k machine, and I still can't friggen figure out how to make only Winamp startup when I put a CD in - and I read /.!
Regards,
-Tammie
Re:Its not just MS . . . (Score:5, Informative)
For filename extensions, Microsoft's brilliant idea was to automatically hide the file extensions in Windows 95 and above by default, meaning you have to rely on the stupid icons to know what your file type is, and things like the SirCam virus can come along and fool people into thinking they are viewing a JPG when they are in fact launching an executable that will bombard me with 200 copies of their "Jun 2000 Sales Report" or something.
Furthermore, until recently, you couldn't search or sort the filename extensions access through "Folder Options" by extension name. You had to know what they are called, or vgrep through a huge list of every file extension ever considered since DOS 1.0 (the list looks practically like
A simple example: I want to reassociate ".BMP" back to the SpiffoPaint program after the BogoPaint trial version stole it away. Prior to Windows 2000, you _had to know_ what file type name the extension is regsitered as (and many weren't obvious). Again that could be any old dumb thing the software developers (like Bogosoft above) decided to call it like "BogoPaint Document" or whatever. If you didn't know that, then good luck finding it by hand, Chester.
In the NT 4.0 days, I personally had to resort to using 4NT's file association feature (I think the NT Resource Kit had something too) because otherwise it was just too much trouble.
And as far as editing the regsitry goes, remember that Microsoft's first plan was to not allow users to edit the registry at all?
Given that I remember in the late 80's that I had to rewrite the installation batch files for most software I installed, the idea horrified me. Now in 2001, not being able to edit the regsitry still horrifies me.
"Where do you want to go today, and how lost are you going to be before getting there?"
Re:Give me a break. (Score:2, Informative)
Just my $0.02 worth, but I don't think that the users who can't get the open with dialog box in the first place would even bother.
there is an easier way... (Score:2, Informative)
Very easy to do.
Re:Its not just MS . . . & there are ways.... (Score:2, Informative)
The 2 options I use are to edit the CLSID settings within the registry and give myself an option. Export that registry key and then anyone else just double clicks the
The other is a cleverly crafted shortcut in the windows\sent to folder. These are great if you are advanced.
But can easily be set up so that those not so advanced can easily use for ever more with additional freedom. Not that there are too many non techs who actually want to use more than one product to do any given task. They like one thing to work and they stick with it, (well that has been my experience).
As always each to their own